Dior Black Night & Golden Show from Golden Nights Holiday 2020

Once in awhile, I get carried away by the prettiness of Dior makeup, and I am definitely in the mood for a bit of escapism after the challenging year we’ve had.  Given Dior recently reformulated their eyeshadows, I decided it was a grand opportunity to test out the two Dior 5 Couleur Couture Eyeshadow Palettes from their Golden Nights Holiday 2020 collection!

Dior’s Golden Nights Collection for Holiday 2020 is a bit of a glamorous affair, with dramatic hues of black & gold and frosted effects.  Despite the challenging environment we are currently in, Peter Phillips stuck with an exuberant 19-piece collection.  The biggest draw for me is the gorgeous snowflake designed embossed on their powders and lipsticks.  I was tempted to get them all, but thankfully only the 2 eyeshadow palettes were available when I was shopping on Selfridges online.  In any case, it was the new Dior 5 Couleurs Couture Eyeshadow Palette formula that I really wanted to check out.

Dior 5 Couleurs Couture Eyeshadow Palette – 089 Black Night

Black Night features a dark, rock-&-roll color story composed of blacks & blue, accentuated by burgundy and silver.  Despite the dark colors, the palette is neutral-toned overall, and there is a nice variation of satin, metallic & matte finishes that offer several possibilities.

The shades are:

• Top left – Deep black with a satin finish and interspersed with blue & silver microshimmers.  This shade was nice and intense when swatched with a finger, but I had difficulty blending out with a brush on my lids.
• Top right – Brightened cool metallic silver.  This is nicely pigmented, so a tiny bit is probably all you will need unless you are going for a futuristic look.
• Middle – Deep blackened burgundy with a satin finish.  This is a gorgeous way for cool-toned ladies to wear reds on the lids, and the key selling point of this palette imo.
• Bottom left – Dark navy that pulls black and is hard to standout against the other blacks on my lids.  It is somewhat drier than the other shades and lacks intensity.
• Bottom right – Neutral-toned black with a matte finish.  Frankly I don’t understand the need for 2 blacks in a palette, and it is not an exceptionally interesting one either.  Could be helpful as a base shade for layering, or lining the lashes.

I have not had the chance to glam up so the makeup look below is a representation of how I would wear Black Night on a daily basis.

Dior 5 Couleurs Couture Eyeshadow Palette – 549 Golden Show

If you consider Black Night above to be designed for evening soirees, the next palette from the Dior Golden Nights Collection is better suited for day events.

Golden Show is the kind of palette that I think many ladies love, and the kind of easy elegance that I myself am gravitating towards now that I am in my 40’s.  The brown-tones are not overly showy, allowing me to easily transition from a quick meeting at the office to home office.  Golden Show gravitates towards cool-tone and packs more flash than Black Night above.

The shades are:

• Top left – light cool-toned peach with a metallic finish, lovely when layered over the browns
• Top right – frosty white gold useful as an inner corner highlight
• Middle – light cool-toned yellow gold with a metallic finish
• Bottom left – medium-dark copper brown with a satin finish
• Bottom right – dark brown with a matte finish

Here is my makeup look featuring Dior Golden Show on my lids.

About the new formula…

The new Dior 5 Couleur Couture Eyeshadow Palette is slimmer than its predecessor, and at a slightly reduced price point.  However, it also contains significantly less product (0.14oz compared with 0.24oz previously) and does not come with the standard velvet sleeve.  Personally, I welcome the slimmer profile and don’t mind reduced capacity since I never empty my palettes.  Regardless, I wish Dior also reduced the price point with the same relative proportion to be fair to consumers.

I was frankly disappointed when I first dipped into Black Nights, and found myself cussing the 2nd and 3rd times I tried it.  The shades do not blend well and lacked opacity as you can probably tell from the makeup look above.  However, when I finger swatched it later, I found the texture to be surprisingly creamy.  It could be that I was overly careful not to touch the embossing.  But when I next tried Golden Show, the disparity in quality became evident.

Have you tried the new Dior 5 Couleur Couture Eyeshadow Palettes?